4 ms·

you can start your own startup, be your own boss and earn loads of money but to get there you need much more dedication and smart work than you currently do as

you can start your own startup, be your own boss and earn loads of money but to get there you need much more dedication and smart work than you currently do as employee so, instead of trying that, you choose to lease 8 hours a day to a corporate overlord you will earn money, but no legacy and no respect

Bakary 4y ago
Respect from whom? And what kind of legacy? And why will that legacy matter exactly? These aren't questions to be taken for granted
- ushakov 4y ago
  i'd say Fabrice Bellard is a good role-model to look up to if you're talking about respect and legacy
  - feet 4y ago
    Should I know who that is?
    - chucksmash 4y ago
      https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32795559 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32795559
    - kybernetikos 4y ago
      Probably his most influential projects have been ffmpeg and QEMU. Lots of people use software incorporating or derived from those, often without even realising. I think most developers would be proud of a legacy containing starting just one project like either of those. He's also got a great body of interesting other projects and hacks, including a linux capable VM running in the browser, a digital tv broadcaster using a single pin of vga, a popular embeddable javascript engine, a C compiler that could compile and boot the linux kernel in less than 15 seconds - allowing effectively 'boot from source', an award winning neural network based text compressor and many more - to say nothing of temporarily holding the record for most digits of PI calculated (using a formula he invented, and on a home PC).
    - scruple 4y ago
      No, of course not. He is a programming powerhouse. His projects are monumental. It's astonishing what this one person can get done. At a former employer, I was part of a team of a couple dozen engineers and digital designers who were working on an LTE remote radiohead and base station product. Around the time we were releasing this product, Fabrice released this [0]. Fabrice is a tremendous talent, in our world he would be analogous to a Kobe Bryant or a Wayne Gretzky, so I find it flatly obnoxious that this is the bar that's being raised in this thread. It doesn't matter how hard I eschew the bullshit in my life and everything else "standing in my way" to try to build a legacy. I am not like Fabrice. It's unlikely anyone in this comment thread is like Fabrice. There are so very few people who are on his level, you could probably count them all on 2 hands. It's absurd to think that this is what everyone eeds to strive for in life. [0]: https://bellard.org/lte/ https://bellard.org/lte/
  - Bakary 4y ago
    Well that is worth examining. What does Fabrice think of his own legacy, and how much does it matter to him compared to other aspects of life? We can't really answer that question without his own input. How would the fabric of our lives change if we had a legacy similar to that of Fabrice? The reason I'm asking these things is that we often hear the words legacy and respect in specific contexts similar to this one, but there isn't much follow up as to what this respect and legacy entails for the individual or exactly why it is so important compared to other aspects. This is a crucial part for our life plan because we consider people like Fabrice in retrospect after they have already succeeded, in a fun twist on the anthropic principle, but we don't consider the alternative Fabrices who have failed in other universes and risked everything for legacy. And we rarely consider the past Fabrices in our own universe from previous generations whom we have already forgotten despite their success.
  - astura 4y ago
    Who the fuck is Fabrice Bellard?
int0x2e 4y ago
I feel the same way, but to play devil's advocate - the vast majority of startups do fail, and leave you with no meaningful legacy. You could grow as a person, you could be very passionate and driven, etc. - but you could also end up quite depressed when things die down (speaking from experience sadly). I still think startups are awesome, but if you view work as a transaction, having a good corporate job can be a better transaction for many folks, especially if work is only a part of your life, not the defining feature. Time with your children when they are young is often the easiest to explain, but same goes for time with parents/grandparents, time to work on passion projects, etc.
- ushakov 4y ago
  this is why (tech) startups should be open-source (or open-core at least)
dahfizz 4y ago
I feel confident in guessing that you don't have a family. Working a regular 9-5 that pays me well is so much better than the stress and time sink of starting my own company. It's stable, it's easy, and it gives me plenty of time and money to spend with my family. Not everyone searches for meaning in their work. I enjoy my day job, but my satisfaction in life comes from what I do off the clock. My family is my legacy and my respect. IDGAF what my peers think of me - why does that matter? I get a raise based on performance each year, and that's enough for me.
cuddlecake 4y ago
As most people will - die without legacy and respect, because they are not a corporate overlord. I guess.
Shorel 4y ago
You could also experience to be bankrupt when trying to run a startup. Success is not guaranteed at all, and the statistics show more than half of them fail.

Bakary 4y ago

Respect from whom? And what kind of legacy? And why will that legacy matter exactly? These aren't questions to be taken for granted

ushakov 4y ago
i'd say Fabrice Bellard is a good role-model to look up to if you're talking about respect and legacy
- feet 4y ago
  Should I know who that is?
  - chucksmash 4y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32795559 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32795559
  - kybernetikos 4y ago
    Probably his most influential projects have been ffmpeg and QEMU. Lots of people use software incorporating or derived from those, often without even realising. I think most developers would be proud of a legacy containing starting just one project like either of those. He's also got a great body of interesting other projects and hacks, including a linux capable VM running in the browser, a digital tv broadcaster using a single pin of vga, a popular embeddable javascript engine, a C compiler that could compile and boot the linux kernel in less than 15 seconds - allowing effectively 'boot from source', an award winning neural network based text compressor and many more - to say nothing of temporarily holding the record for most digits of PI calculated (using a formula he invented, and on a home PC).
  - scruple 4y ago
    No, of course not. He is a programming powerhouse. His projects are monumental. It's astonishing what this one person can get done. At a former employer, I was part of a team of a couple dozen engineers and digital designers who were working on an LTE remote radiohead and base station product. Around the time we were releasing this product, Fabrice released this [0]. Fabrice is a tremendous talent, in our world he would be analogous to a Kobe Bryant or a Wayne Gretzky, so I find it flatly obnoxious that this is the bar that's being raised in this thread. It doesn't matter how hard I eschew the bullshit in my life and everything else "standing in my way" to try to build a legacy. I am not like Fabrice. It's unlikely anyone in this comment thread is like Fabrice. There are so very few people who are on his level, you could probably count them all on 2 hands. It's absurd to think that this is what everyone eeds to strive for in life. [0]: https://bellard.org/lte/ https://bellard.org/lte/
- Bakary 4y ago
  Well that is worth examining. What does Fabrice think of his own legacy, and how much does it matter to him compared to other aspects of life? We can't really answer that question without his own input. How would the fabric of our lives change if we had a legacy similar to that of Fabrice? The reason I'm asking these things is that we often hear the words legacy and respect in specific contexts similar to this one, but there isn't much follow up as to what this respect and legacy entails for the individual or exactly why it is so important compared to other aspects. This is a crucial part for our life plan because we consider people like Fabrice in retrospect after they have already succeeded, in a fun twist on the anthropic principle, but we don't consider the alternative Fabrices who have failed in other universes and risked everything for legacy. And we rarely consider the past Fabrices in our own universe from previous generations whom we have already forgotten despite their success.
- astura 4y ago
  Who the fuck is Fabrice Bellard?

int0x2e 4y ago

I feel the same way, but to play devil's advocate - the vast majority of startups do fail, and leave you with no meaningful legacy. You could grow as a person, you could be very passionate and driven, etc. - but you could also end up quite depressed when things die down (speaking from experience sadly). I still think startups are awesome, but if you view work as a transaction, having a good corporate job can be a better transaction for many folks, especially if work is only a part of your life, not the defining feature. Time with your children when they are young is often the easiest to explain, but same goes for time with parents/grandparents, time to work on passion projects, etc.

ushakov 4y ago
this is why (tech) startups should be open-source (or open-core at least)

dahfizz 4y ago

I feel confident in guessing that you don't have a family. Working a regular 9-5 that pays me well is so much better than the stress and time sink of starting my own company. It's stable, it's easy, and it gives me plenty of time and money to spend with my family. Not everyone searches for meaning in their work. I enjoy my day job, but my satisfaction in life comes from what I do off the clock. My family is my legacy and my respect. IDGAF what my peers think of me - why does that matter? I get a raise based on performance each year, and that's enough for me.

cuddlecake 4y ago

As most people will - die without legacy and respect, because they are not a corporate overlord. I guess.

Shorel 4y ago

You could also experience to be bankrupt when trying to run a startup. Success is not guaranteed at all, and the statistics show more than half of them fail.